OWNERSHIP OF TAX COLLECTION FIRM QUESTIONED

DAN UHLINGER Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

The owner of a company that collects the town's taxes has named a Ridgefield man -- the same man who tried to buy the privately held business a year ago -- the company's vice president and a member of its board of directors.

Town Manager Matthew B. Galligan said Monday that the appointment of Peter Laqueur to the management of Northeast Business Services Inc. and details discovered in a financial statement suggest that the Torrington-based company has changed ownership and is in breach of its contract.

But an attorney for the company said Joseph Cordani Sr. is still the sole shareholder of Northeast and has not broken any agreement with the town.

Jerome J. Sanchy, an attorney for Northeast, said Laqueur's appointment does not signify a change in ownership or control of the company.

"It smacks of backdooring a plan that was not approved by the council," council member Marianne Lassman Fisher said Monday.

Sanchy said that if anyone has breached a contract it is town officials.

Under the contract, the town is supposed to make monthly payments to Northeast for its services, but Sanchy said the company has not been paid for February and March.

Town officials hired Northeast in 1994 to collect taxes, but the relationship soured and the council decided in October to sever the arrangement when the contract expires in June.

The town and Northeast have been trying to work out an agreement for transferring the tax accounts back to the town.

The problem for town officials is that Northeast owns a large portion of anticipated revenues for the next three years, and the town has to find a way to fund future budgets. A problem for Northeast has been getting the town to release money owed to the company.

Town officials were scheduled to meet with Cordani today to work out an agreement ending the dispute, but Sanchy said the meeting will not be held unless he receives assurances that Northeast will be paid for February and March.

"I won't even bother spending the money on gas to go there if they don't say they have a check waiting for us," Sanchy said.

Sanchy and Galligan have said it is in the best interests of all to work out an agreement both sides can live with instead of battling it out in court for the next three years.

About a year ago, Laqueur angered town officials when he announced that his company, known as Angram Inc., was in the process of buying Northeast.

Council members argued that Northeast could not be sold without approval by town and state officials, but Sanchy disagreed.

Although the deal was never approved or completed, Sanchy said he still believes that Cordani has the right to sell Northeast or its assets.

Fisher said Angram was set up specifically to absorb Northeast, but Sanchy said that was just one ot the goals.

"The fact is, when the contract expires with South Windsor, Northeast will be dissolved and Mr. Cordani will retire," Sanchy said.

He said Northeast has sold some of its accounts receivable to Angram as the contract allows. Because of that, Laqueur has a right to sit on the board of Northeast, Sanchy said.

Angram has about 100 accredited investors, who each have a net worth of more than $1 million.

"Some of the people in South Windsor try to make Angram out to be some type of Mafia that's operating. The fact is, the [investors] are high-profile people and corporations with substantial interests," Sanchy said.

"I don't mean to sound combative, but the town has not suffered any damage, even if it could be proved that Northeast has broken the contract," he said.

Fisher still questioned the arrangement between Angram and Northeast.

"The fact that both companies share officers and the same counselor strikes me really as a corporation that is intertwined," Fisher said.

But Sanchy said the two companies are separate and distinct.

"If a dispute brewed, I would have to step aside. But right now they are on a harmonious path," he said. "I don't understand some of the people in South Windsor who approved the contract and are now acting like Northeast shoved this deal down their throat."